So they came to the hole, and looked in.
And there was mannikin standing on the knife-board, and plugging the blacking-bottles on to the bricks.
And when Tiny said
"Why?"
Mannikin sucked his thumb and answered,
"Becob I like to see the ink splosh so."
Then Tiny, who loved lecturing better than anything else in the world, took the blacking-bottles away from him, and told him he was only making it worse for himself, and the badder he behaved the longer he'd be there, and how the King was very strict, although he was so good and kind.
But Mannikin didn't seem to mind, and strutted up and down the boot-hole, with his hands in his pockets, singing,
"I'm the cock of the boot-hole!
I'm the cock of the boot-hole!
See me!
See me!
I'm the cock of the boot-hole!"
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